Competitions › Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition (ICAC)
Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition (ICAC)
Next edition
No future edition is announced on the official pages we could check.
Overview
The ICAC is the flagship competition of the Guitar Foundation of America and is held at the annual GFA convention. Competitors play a preliminary round, a semifinal and a final before international juries. The Rose Augustine Grand Prize includes a concert tour of about 50 concerts and a Carnegie Hall concert.
- Organiser
- Guitar Foundation of America
- Instruments
- Classical guitar
- Category
- Solo guitar
- Age limits
- Age 18 to 35; all nationalities
Rules & repertoire
Registration & fee
GFA membership required, then separate registration; 2026 registration ran 8 Dec 2025 to 1 May 2026; repertoire due 15 May.
Rounds & time limits
- Preliminary: 10-minute free-choice program plus set piece, five judges, 12 advance
- Semifinal: up to 25 minutes, seven judges, 4 advance
- Final: 30-minute free-choice program plus set piece
Repertoire
A GFA-commissioned set piece (memorization optional) plus free-choice works played from memory; the 2026 semifinal required Llobet's Scherzo-Vals. Pieces may not be repeated across rounds except the set piece.
Jury & prizes
Jury
- Bin Hu
- Colin Davin
- Connie Sheu
- Fabio Zanon
- Slava Grigoryan
- Artyom Dervoed
- He Qing
- Meng Su
- Stephen Aron
- Steve Goss
- Steve Mattingly
- Vladimir Gorbach
Prizes
- Rose Augustine Grand Prize: $10,000, about 50-concert tour, Carnegie Hall concert, recording opportunities
- 2nd prize $7,000
- 3rd prize $5,000
- 4th prize $3,000
- $500 travel stipend for each semifinalist
Past editions
Summarised from official sources, last checked 10 Nov 2026. Main source